<p>This paper focuses on the role of extracorporeal organ support procedures in the treatment of patients with multiple organ failure (MOF). The self-imposed goals of the developers to temporarily support vital organ functions through the treatment or to promote the regeneration of the failed organs, should be welcomed and deserve support; however, this potential has so far been little utilized in modern intensive care medicine and the respective procedures are rarely used in the clinical routine. The extent to which these procedures actually provide clinical value for affected patients has still to be clarified in many cases. This is primarily due to insufficient data, a&#xa0;lack of information on the optimal conditions for using the techniques and a&#xa0;lack of knowledge about the treated diseases and syndromes. The aim of this work is to present some organ support procedures, to document the current status of their use and to describe ways to achieve the self-formulated potential. This requires intensive interdisciplinary collaboration among various clinical specialties with the developers to select appropriate patient collectives, develop optimal study protocols and successfully conduct sufficiently powered and high-quality studies.</p>